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Monday, 11 February 2013

Harper contradicts Pickles there is "no estimate"

At Home Office Questions in the House of Commons this afternoon the Conservative Immigration Minister Mark Harper told the House that "no estimate" has been carried out by the UK Government on the number of people who are expected to come here once restrictions are lifted against Bulgarian and Romanian nationals on January 1st 2014. However the Conservative Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, told Andrew Neil on the BBC's Sunday Politics on January 13th 2013 that an "influx" of Romanians and Bulgarians would add to the existing housing problems in the UK. When pressed on the figures on the number of people expected to "influx" here by Andrew Neil the Secretary of State said "I have seen figures. I wasn't confident of those figures. I have asked for a further explanation and when I've got that explanation and when I feel confident about the figures I'll talk about them."The problem with what Mr Pickles said is, if Mark Harper was telling the truth then, the reason that Mr Pickles couldn't give the figures he claims to of seen simply don't exist. As "no estimate" has been carried out by the government.